Exact meron black holes in four dimensional SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory

In this Letter an intrinsically non-Abelian black hole solution for the SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions is constructed. The gauge field of this solution has the form of a meron whereas the metric is the one of a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole in which, however, the coefficient of the 1/r(2) term is not an integration constant. Even if the stress-energy tensor of the Yang-Mills field is spherically symmetric, the field strength of the Yang-Mills field itself is not. A remarkable consequence of this fact, which allows to distinguish the present solution from essentially Abelian configurations, is the Jackiw-Rebbi-Hasenfratz-'t Hooft mechanism according to which excitations of Bosonic fields moving in the background of a gauge field with this characteristic behave as Fermionic degrees of freedom. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.